never give up. once dialed in soil rocks.yea a little lesss than hydro but not much. i aint ever going back to hydro and chems .
-
Happy Birthday ICMag! Been 20 years since Gypsy Nirvana created the forum! We are celebrating with a 4/20 Giveaway and by launching a new Patreon tier called "420club". You can read more here.
-
Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!
im cancelling my organics program.
- Thread starter captinknots
- Start date
captinknots
Member
its funny, cause my veggers are starting to look great... like i said the biggest problem is whats going down in week 4 of flower... I just cut some clones and im going to use 4 of them with true organics, and follow the kis stoner method. soil, R/O water (lightly) and see where they go. the other 12 will be on the general organics full line. thats what i used when i got 5.5lbs under my 4 1000s (which isnt that good, i know) but i used ff cha ching, beastie bloom, and open seasme in flower with them (probably didnt help mixing chems and organics, and completely pointless).
ill figure out what works. hopefully before i need to buy more nutes! lol
ill figure out what works. hopefully before i need to buy more nutes! lol
S
schwagg
rainwater is better then r/o. so is stream and river.
Aside from conservation, why is that?
captin - there's all these people giving you great advice and it's gone straight over your head where you've chosen two organic routes that are not great at all.
Get your profits back up if that's what you need to do - then on the other side...
Hobby grow some organic weed for yourself. Try taking on board some of the great advice you've heard instead of second guessing all the time. The energy is great, but it is misguided. You really have walked into one of the cutting edge forums around when it comes to organic growing, so suck it up and enjoy...
Unless your water is completely whacked, RO is for hydro - if your water is a bit basic you bubble it and it will lower the pH.
All those powders and potions cost a fortune and are merely designer bottles of the stuff (some of) the people here make themselves.
Get a worm farm and once you have decent fresh castings learn to make compost tea from the OFC people specifically CT Guy and MM's writing and website. Once you have done that it will solve nearly every other gardening problem you have. One EWC compost tea after planting, one in transition, one in mid flower. That's all you need to do with good soils and even that seems superflous at present for me, plus you need to water of course.
Pot's - the bigger the better. I've progressed from 2 gallon to 5 to a bed style setup. The soil in the pot becomes an ecosystem - the bigger the better.
Then there's soil. What constitutes a good organic soil? This is likely going to generate discussion but it's all good:
Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) - What is good to increase the CEC of my soil? Bio-char.
Porosity - drainage and aeration are important, but so is water retention to an extent. What would impart these properties to my soil? Bio-char.
Nutrition - From minerals to NPK plants soil needs specific nutrients in order to be useful for plants. This nutrition is mainly provided from a complex food web via microorganisms. This could cost you a lifetime of study, or you could make a worm farm, and compost tea, and not have to get a degree. The nutrients you put in organic soil feed this food web and their waste products become the plants food. Without this food web soil growing can be a problematic bitch. Give your soil treats but remember the caveat LESS IS BEST it's so hard not to try get the nth out of plants by adding more of a good thing but this is a new growers plants biggest problem - death via coddling. Your soil will want some minerals (clay, rock dust, seaweed) and nutrition (blood and bone, plant meals) and if it's peat based out of the bag add some dolomite or crushed shells till the peats dissapeared after a few grows.
Making a good soil mix is only part of growing. Adding worm castings is only as good as the castings themselves. The same with compost teas, they are only as good as the source compost (worm castings in my case). So you build a worm bin, get good castings, learn about making teas from good teachers then build some soil from a recipe here that's been vetted by folks knowledgeable in local soil type products. You don't need to buy soil again so take your time and build it good.
It'll be months before you are producing your own castings, try a dirt grow with store castings inbetween, then add home made castings you'll see the improvement.
The secret to good organic soil is the organic part of it. Humus built by microbial life and the microbial life, the secret to building the microbes is teas, the secret to good teas is good compost to make them.
Make good compost, a good garden will be a side effect.
Get your profits back up if that's what you need to do - then on the other side...
Hobby grow some organic weed for yourself. Try taking on board some of the great advice you've heard instead of second guessing all the time. The energy is great, but it is misguided. You really have walked into one of the cutting edge forums around when it comes to organic growing, so suck it up and enjoy...
Unless your water is completely whacked, RO is for hydro - if your water is a bit basic you bubble it and it will lower the pH.
All those powders and potions cost a fortune and are merely designer bottles of the stuff (some of) the people here make themselves.
Get a worm farm and once you have decent fresh castings learn to make compost tea from the OFC people specifically CT Guy and MM's writing and website. Once you have done that it will solve nearly every other gardening problem you have. One EWC compost tea after planting, one in transition, one in mid flower. That's all you need to do with good soils and even that seems superflous at present for me, plus you need to water of course.
Pot's - the bigger the better. I've progressed from 2 gallon to 5 to a bed style setup. The soil in the pot becomes an ecosystem - the bigger the better.
Then there's soil. What constitutes a good organic soil? This is likely going to generate discussion but it's all good:
Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) - What is good to increase the CEC of my soil? Bio-char.
Porosity - drainage and aeration are important, but so is water retention to an extent. What would impart these properties to my soil? Bio-char.
Nutrition - From minerals to NPK plants soil needs specific nutrients in order to be useful for plants. This nutrition is mainly provided from a complex food web via microorganisms. This could cost you a lifetime of study, or you could make a worm farm, and compost tea, and not have to get a degree. The nutrients you put in organic soil feed this food web and their waste products become the plants food. Without this food web soil growing can be a problematic bitch. Give your soil treats but remember the caveat LESS IS BEST it's so hard not to try get the nth out of plants by adding more of a good thing but this is a new growers plants biggest problem - death via coddling. Your soil will want some minerals (clay, rock dust, seaweed) and nutrition (blood and bone, plant meals) and if it's peat based out of the bag add some dolomite or crushed shells till the peats dissapeared after a few grows.
Making a good soil mix is only part of growing. Adding worm castings is only as good as the castings themselves. The same with compost teas, they are only as good as the source compost (worm castings in my case). So you build a worm bin, get good castings, learn about making teas from good teachers then build some soil from a recipe here that's been vetted by folks knowledgeable in local soil type products. You don't need to buy soil again so take your time and build it good.
It'll be months before you are producing your own castings, try a dirt grow with store castings inbetween, then add home made castings you'll see the improvement.
The secret to good organic soil is the organic part of it. Humus built by microbial life and the microbial life, the secret to building the microbes is teas, the secret to good teas is good compost to make them.
Make good compost, a good garden will be a side effect.
S
staff11
When starting out using the KISS method really works wonders. Try to get a soil mix that can just be watered almost all the way through the grow. Screw the AACT (if you don't have the right pumps/equipment) And just use you GO line to supplement the grow.
You don't need a whole lot for that either, some espoma biotone or plant tone, LC's mix and some bagged EWC will work fine. Mix it all up, let it cook for about two weeks and you shouldn't need to add ANY nutrients until the transition phase.... Even then you wont need much through flower. If you have the GO biothrive bloom, use it once a week at 2 TSP per gallon. Don't over feed them and you will get results. Jumping in and trying to do what these guys on this forum have perfected over years of experience probably wont work. They have the soil/nute/strain's dialed in, it takes time. Through each grow you will get better.
It doesn't take a whole lot to grow decent smoke through organics if you just stick to the basics or follow one of the beginner recipes TO THE T.
You don't need a whole lot for that either, some espoma biotone or plant tone, LC's mix and some bagged EWC will work fine. Mix it all up, let it cook for about two weeks and you shouldn't need to add ANY nutrients until the transition phase.... Even then you wont need much through flower. If you have the GO biothrive bloom, use it once a week at 2 TSP per gallon. Don't over feed them and you will get results. Jumping in and trying to do what these guys on this forum have perfected over years of experience probably wont work. They have the soil/nute/strain's dialed in, it takes time. Through each grow you will get better.
It doesn't take a whole lot to grow decent smoke through organics if you just stick to the basics or follow one of the beginner recipes TO THE T.
redneck shogun
Member
I've always been one of those guys that re-pot a bunch of times working my way up to 5 gallons when I flip. So I thought this time I would do a little experiment. When I took the other plants to 1 gallon containers, I put one a step ahead into a 3 gallon. As it turned out the 3 gallon plant became just as root-bound as the 1 gallon in the same amount of time. The plant is bigger with more root mass than the others. I'm sold on the idea of pushing them into bigger containers as soon as possible. I've thought about the grow bed idea for a long time, I'm just slowly working my way up to it.
redneck shogun
Try this experiment some time - root your cutting(s) directly into a 1 gallon pot using a clear beverage cup as the 'dome' and see how that works out for you.
Heh....................
CC
This last round I planted identical clones in 18oz beer cups and in #1 nursery pots. All things being equal, here is the difference in two identical cuttings after about a month.
This is the result 3 cloning runs in a row where I do a remaining few in beer cups.
Smiley
This is the result 3 cloning runs in a row where I do a remaining few in beer cups.
Smiley
^^^^^ - that's been my experience as well (rooting in 1 gallon pots directly).
GS - I took some of the Clonex Gel product and added small/tiny amounts of humic acid that had been inoculated with 7 strains of endomycorrhizal fungi into the gel along with the soluble seaweed product and dipped the cuttings into the 'new & improved' gel as it were.
I'll be repeating that process in the future with a couple of minor tweaks. Some of the roots actually came out on the top of the soil from the middle of the cutting's shaft. I'd never seen that before. The root mass was far better than other methods/processes that I've played with.
CC
GS - I took some of the Clonex Gel product and added small/tiny amounts of humic acid that had been inoculated with 7 strains of endomycorrhizal fungi into the gel along with the soluble seaweed product and dipped the cuttings into the 'new & improved' gel as it were.
I'll be repeating that process in the future with a couple of minor tweaks. Some of the roots actually came out on the top of the soil from the middle of the cutting's shaft. I'd never seen that before. The root mass was far better than other methods/processes that I've played with.
CC
I've been taking a mixture of PRO-Tekt, KLN, and acadian kelp extrract. I soak my oasis cubes (Thanks Cheeze 
Best method ever) Anyways I then soak all cuttings in this about 5-10minutes then put em in the cubes. When the cubes fully root then they go into #1's and take off.
I thought you used another product than clonex?
Smiley
Best method ever) Anyways I then soak all cuttings in this about 5-10minutes then put em in the cubes. When the cubes fully root then they go into #1's and take off. I thought you used another product than clonex?
Smiley
captinknots
Member
This last round I planted identical clones in 18oz beer cups and in #1 nursery pots. All things being equal, here is the difference in two identical cuttings after about a month.
This is the result 3 cloning runs in a row where I do a remaining few in beer cups.
Smiley
this thread has turned super informative. thanks. that is one amazing diff between the cups and the 1 gallon. noted!
captinknots
Member
captinknots
Member
my water has eaten through my kitchen sink faucet so......its a bit basic as well between 7 and 8
Ohh btw that bigger one is the minute after putting it in a 3 gallon but the size is apparent. I have a younger shot too
Ohh btw that bigger one is the minute after putting it in a 3 gallon but the size is apparent. I have a younger shot too
Is that CC's mix..or a slight variation? I forgetz.....
Well, it's his base mix (SS org growers, ewc, marwest comp solomons lime mix) amended with some different things. I don't have the full barrage of seed meals that he has, as mine has guano in it. I have neem and kelp meals as well. I'm about done with the guanos so I'm going to reevaluate things.
mix listed here
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=3794893&postcount=22
Smiley
mix listed here
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=3794893&postcount=22
Smiley
